Demons Use Doorbells

A friend of mine got me into the Black Tapes Podcast. It’s a great show, and I’m really into it and the mythology is fascinating. The podcast focuses on Alex Reagan, a journalist from Pacific Northwest Stories, who wants to start a series about people who pursue unusual occupations. Her first interview changes the whole focus of her series, focusing instead on one individual – Dr. Richard Strand – who debunks paranormal hoaxes. Alex starts looking into a set of old VHS tapes in Strand’s office – the Black Tapes – which leads her to, among many other things, a child (Sebastien Torres) haunted by a tall shadowy figure and a institutionalized former-mute (Simon Reese) with a fascination with summoning through “demon doors”.

I was listening to episode 107 in which a search for Sebastien leads Alex to an old shack in the middle of the woods that’s inscribed with the same sort of markings that they’d seen in Simon’s room – a demon door, meant to summon a demon into this world. Alex calls Simon for advice on the symbols, since Strand had been dismissive of their significance. As she describes the scene to him, Simon starts to get excited. “He’s coming. He’s coming,” Simon says, voice bordering on religious fervor. Then, “he’s here.”

Right at that moment, my doorbell rings. I tense, and then nearly lose it laughing. It’s UPS with clothes I ordered from Kohl’s, but for a brief second I thought the demon from the podcast was at my front door.